Sino Iron is slowly raising its output but has a long way to go:
Hong Kong-listed Citic Pacific has shipped 1mn t of iron ore concentrate from its Sino Iron mine in Western Australia as it continues its slow production growth following its first shipment in early December.
The Sino Iron project hit the 1mn t shipment level through Cape Preston on the Pilbara coast on 12 July, according to Citic Pacific. This implies a slow ramp up after it shipped its first 400,000t shipment of magnetite concentrate from the $10bn Sino Iron venture in early December.
Citic Pacific has been bedding down the first two concentrate lines at the project through the first half of this year and this month awarded more than $200mn in contracts to build the remaining four concentrate lines. Once all the lines are built the plant should have a capacity of 24mn t/yr of concentrate at up to 66.5pc Fe. The slow build in output will add to the extremely high costs associated with the project, which is some $8bn over budget.
Another reason to wonder about the next down leg in prices in 2015…
